Prophet and the Blood March (Prophet of ConFree) by Marshall S Thomas

Author:Marshall S Thomas [Thomas, Marshall S]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction : Science Fiction - Military Fiction : Science Fiction - Adventure Fiction : Science Fiction - General
ISBN: 9781626462670
Publisher: Booklocker.com, Inc.
Published: 2013-06-14T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Demonic Lovers

"All right, first look. Here goes!" The Prof was excited. I was by his side on the Vampire's bridge. The place was like a cathedral to the Gods of space, quiet, peaceful, perfectly organized, glowing a pale red – almost holy. We were still in vac run red – the panoramic simports were black. The captain was glacially calm. Tech Central's gang of probes had arrived and their eyemotes had deployed by the hundreds. The Vampire's own probes had also just arrived there and were deploying. The screens flickered and filled with images.

Pacifica could be seen from a distance, a jagged, pale brown rock cast in starlight and deep shadows. It slowly grew larger as we watched. The screens filled with data.

"Probes show no intruders detected," the captain summarized. "No starships, no shuttles, no fighters, no probes except our own. Could be they're cloaked. No life."

We waited as the probes shot towards the asteroid. The Prof had again chosen me as his Number Two. Who the hell was I? The Director General of ConFree was undoubtedly watching as events unfolded. And I was Number Two for Delta! Unbelievable. Five years ago I was a teen fool focused entirely on himself and any girl that strayed within range. And now, if anything happened to the Prof, I would be dealing directly with the Director of ConFree. And the fate of an entire planet and maybe even all of ConFree, maybe even all of humanity, was to depend on my judgment.

"All right, let's just see about this," the captain said. The probe went careening into a tight orbit around Pacifica, bringing it all right up close. The target was the two sites where Saka had seen portmods and one giant plasma deflector. The faint red crosshairs shot in there, and the site leaped towards us – three pressurized living or cargo mods, linked together. Scores of massive dropboxes were stacked nearby, and the powdery terrain bore the marks of plenty of low overflights by vac cargo haulers.

"Yes!" I shouted.

"No life," the captain confirmed. "Structures are sealed and abandoned."

The probe led them to the second site, about three K away – a giant black metal tower, grounded in the rock, pointed skywards, topped by a mysterious opening. It appeared dead and dark. The deflector. The screen filled with data.

"The plasma pulse generators are live," one of our engineers interrupted on the tacnet. "Standing by for any further adjustments."

A hail of eyemotes hit the deflector tower, spinning around it wildly, seeking access, then finding it and penetrating.

"All right, we'll have the interior plans soon and Prophet, we won't have much time to come up with a tac plan. Coordinate with the engineers on exactly where to place the antimat charge."

"Yes sir."

"Attention all hands. This is the captain. We are about to exit stardrive. We have scanned the target asteroid and located and confirmed the deflector device. So far we have detected no enemy presence in the tac area. However, we are going to battle stations as a precaution.

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